Sixers lose Richardson, game in New York

New York Knicks' Carmelo Anthony, left, drives on the Philadelphia 76ers' Thaddeus Young in the first quarter of the NBA basketball game at Madison Square Garden in New York, Sunday, Nov. 4, 2012. (AP Photo/Henny Ray Abrams)

NEW YORK – Their nine-man rotation cut to eight by an opening-minutes injury, the 76ers were forced to shuffle the deck Sunday. They had to react on a whim, effectively casting a gameplan they had worked on for three days into one of the garbage cans that line 33rd Street outside Madison Square Garden.

Jason Richardson went down, then the Sixers followed suit.

The Sixers, admittedly, don’t know what they have in their locker room. It’s not an enviable position to be in, which probably played into their 100-84 loss to the New York Knicks.

They’ve transitioned from a 6-1 preseason in which defense and perimeter shooting reigned into a clunker in their second game of the season. The Sixers’ defense, or lack thereof, permitted the Knicks to connect on 51 percent of their attempts, and 41 percent from 3-point range.

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“I told our guys it’s fool’s gold in the preseason,” Sixers coach Doug Collins said. “The game is pretty and 3s are easy to come by, and now, all of a sudden, people start getting into you physically. They start knocking you around a little bit and you have to react. You have to work harder, screen harder, rotate harder.”

The Sixers (1-1), who complete their home-and-home series with New York tonight at Wells Fargo Center, will be without Jason Richardson. They lost their veteran shooting guard to a sprained left ankle 1 minute, 47 seconds into the game and he’s been declared out for the rematch with the Knicks.

Without an identity and without one of their premier shooters, as Collins called Richardson, the Sixers are back to work tonight. It’s what the schedule calls for.

“I told our guys, ‘You’re going through some adversity early,’” Collins said. “Andrew (Bynum) hasn’t been able to play, and now you’ve got J-Rich going down. We’ve got five games in seven days, and we see the same team tomorrow. This is the dog days of the NBA in Week One, and you have to fight through it.”

Hearing the New York City Marathon had been canceled, the 76ers must have decided to leave their running shoes at home.

Their fast break offense – sustained, in theory, by transition 3-pointers from Richardson, Dorell Wright and Nick Young – generated two points. It wasn’t as though the Sixers were outrebounded by the Knicks. Actually, they won the battle of the glass, 41-39.

Here’s how Thad Young reasoned the disparity on the scoreboard: “They forced a lot of turnovers and they were just getting back,” said Young, who had 16 points, six boards and three steals. “They weren’t trying to rebound the basketball. They were sending four, five guys back, trying to get their defense set, so we couldn’t run out.”

The Sixers, who boasted a starting lineup with an average age of 24.6, were slowed to a crawl against the aged Knicks, whose first five had a mean age of 32.2. On defense, the Sixers never seemed to find their assignments, either. They packed a few defenders into the paint, preoccupied with slowing down Carmelo Anthony’s interior scoring, and leaving New York’s perimeter game open for business.

Anthony got his, totaling 27 points on 10-for-18 shooting, and what followed was a flurry of outside shooting by the Knicks (2-0). They ballooned a 7-5 lead into a 17-10 advantage on shots outside 20 feet by Corey Brewer, Jason Kidd and Anthony.

“I really think we have to pick up our intensity. I think, on defense, we really need to,” said the Sixers’ Jrue Holiday, who matched Anthony with 27 points. “That’s a vital part of our offense and getting out on the fastbreak.”

The Knicks’ skip-pass clinic, like their sterling shooting percentage, stayed prevalent throughout. With Collins’ bigs in foul trouble, he went away from using Spencer Hawes and Lavoy Allen late and opted for a smaller lineup in the fourth quarter. Perhaps he was hoping to jump-start a slowed offense with swift feet.

It didn’t work. J.R. Smith made a pair of 3-pointers separated by 71 seconds, turning the Sixers’ nine-point deficit into a 15-point hole from which they never climbed.

“We’ve got to start finding things to do on the floor to make it easier for everybody and that’s a work in progress,” Collins said. “We have nine new faces and I’m trying to figure out who they are and what they do and how they play best. I’ve said it before, but it’s going to take me awhile, and that’s not an excuse.”

Holiday copied his coach’s point of view.

“I just think we need to figure it out, and it takes some time,” Holiday said.